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LIFE FORCES 




V 

Margaret Virginia McCabe 



a^f> ) 



Author of "While I was Musing the Fire Burned" 



Washington, D. C: 

Press of John F. Skeiry, 623 D Street 

1899 



& 

fr 



38195 



Copyright, 1899. 



r Wo copies urue 



IVEO. 







NOTE. 

No apology is made for the thoughts herein given. The 
Spirit leads and all must follow. A great truth is ready for 
acceptance; has been since the beginning. There are many 
ways to enter and each way seemeth best. "Trust thyself" 
is the best guide. As the Voice speaks to the inner conscious- 
ness, that is the road to take. Sickness abounds, and 
there is a mad rush to the pool as the waters are disturbed. 
Many stand back and complain, yet all are eager and wait- 
ing for relief, but they want a prop on which to lean and be 
pushed forward. The writer is not seeking to advertise her 
own gift of healing. She has avoided as much as possible 
all references to patients. 

This little book is sent out to those eager, striving souls 
who are earnestly seeking aid on a rugged, toilsome journey. 
The light within its lines may be hidden to many, but to 
those for whom it is intended the radiance will shine forth 
and the cross will grow lighter. 

It is meant also to relieve death of its horrors and teach 
the divine comprehension of the soul's progression. It is 
dedicated to none in name, but in thought and magnetic 
influence to many, and especially to suffering, saddened 
ones who need help. 

The author is repaid by the silent thanks that telepathy 

brings back to her. 

M. V. McC. 



8EC0N0 COPY, 
16*9. 



>. v 




CONTENTS. 

God-Consciousness 7 

Material Forces 28 

Spirit Forces 38 

Building-Stones 57 

Mortal Mind 64 

Alpha and Omega . . 80 



L 

GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS* 

Words spoken vibrate through all eternity. Thoughts 
generated reverberate with greater force because the in- 
visible powers are more potent in their results. Mater- 
ial forces cease with the death of the mortal body. 
Spiritual forces endure forever. 

The first Word produced creation, and each succeed- 
ing vibration widened the circle by evolutionary pro- 
cesses. Back of this Word was a Cause, and that Cause 
was God — invisible because Spirit. We see the effect. 
We know and feel the cause. Human mind cannot 
comprehend God. Only through man's spiritual nature 
is the oneness felt. 

Man is the effect of the Word. The soul man is 
God's individualization. External, mortal man lifted 
above the brute creation by his power of reasoning is 
simply the result of material forces. 

Ideas photograph themselves on the brain. 

Over one of our city colleges these words stand forth 
in glaring, glittering letters : "Education for Real Life." 
It sets one thinking. Real life! The tenement of clay, 
tossed about by every wind that blows, a creature of 
chance or man's pleasure. A life that ends when death 
calls ! Perhaps we are mistaken and these are correct, 



but after years of experience in this real life I am ready to 
answer in the words of Phillips Brooks: " The ideal life, 
the life of full completeness haunts us all. We feel the 
thing we ought to be beating against the thing we are." 
Once upon a time, in the far-off years ago. so long 
past that human mind cannot grasp its beginning, some 
mortal mind felt inspired to put together legends and 
weave them into a history of creation ; a story of births 
and wars and bloodshed ; a story of men of great physi- 
cal strength, mighty and strong before the Lord. To 
these people many and devious happenings occurred, 
coupled with much wickedness and accompanied by 
visions of angels, and the world was filled with sugges- 
tions of ideas. Through all these centuries of strength, 
never was the people without one leading prophet guided 
by the Lord by means of visions. Finally, when the 
world grew more and more wicked the greatest prophet 
of all arose, and was called Jesus. Him they crucified, 
and ever since, the world of churches has worshipped the 
Man nailed to the cross. The shadow of that cross fell 
across the human race, and by suggestion, only the suf- 
fering, bleeding Jesus has been the world's Savior, and 
this thought has vibrated through ] 900 years. A cruci- 
fied Man has been worshipped, a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, a humiliated, despised Jesus! 
But the risen Christ, victorious over evil, with His 
Father's seal upon his forehead shining with an inex- 
tinguishable glory, holding forth peace and comfort to 



the sorrowful race, has been ignored. The suggestion 
of the shadow of the cross has shut out the brightness of 
the all-comprehensible light — which is Love. And yet 
we call ourselves an intelligent, far-seeing race ! We 
have dwelt so long on the shadow side of life; we have 
daily climbed Sinai's and knew it not — because we en- 
joy sympathy. We want to be sad, we want to be sickly, 
we want to be burdened and depressed, so we do not 
suffer too much. 

Tear aside the close-shut gates and step into the 
broad, illuminated sunshine of God's love and worship 
the risen Christ. Ascend into the holy of holies, the 
inner sanctuary of your own God nature, and be at one 
with God himself. 

There are so many discrepancies, so many contradictions 
in this book that men have written and called the Bible. 
Not a page that does not contradict itself. Even the 
thoughts of this man Jesus are changeable. The world 
has bowed down and done reverence to the mortal part 
of the prophets. The inspiration of the Spirit, that 
might have set upon them as cloven tongues of fire, has 
been ignored, and when one rises up and asserts this ego 
now, he is scoifed at as mad. The Lord said, " My Spirit 
shall not always strive with man for that he is also 
flesh." 

The Bible is the product of mortal mind, historically 
incorrect, full of allegories and visions, but also full of 
inspired words. It pictures a God of anger and ven- 



10 

geance, smiting and killing and working His own selfish 
ends. How erroneous when God is only Love ! 

This terrible God is a God of mortal conception, 
builded by fear, and exists only through perverted, ignor- 
ant, evil suggestion. Ingersoll rightly says, " The devil 
is the keystone of the arch of Christianity, " because the 
devil is an interpretation of mortal mind as a compensa- 
tion for the avenging God man also created. 

The Bible has come down through many ages because 
it had among its chaff inspirations of the living fire. 

For man to abase himself, crucify his inclinations, 
and follow his own misconceived idea of the lowly 
Jesus, is simply ignorant belief. Jesus never humbled 
himself. He always exalted himself, and taught as one 
having authority. From His childhood's days, when 
He argued with the wise men in the temple to the hour 
He rebuked his disciples for murmu ring over the loss of the 
costly box ofointment,you cannot find any degree of lowli- 
ness of mind or position. He asserted the God at all sea- 
sons and in all places. When they came to Him and said, 
'•Your mother and brethren await without," was this 
Man touched with pity when, looking at His disciples, 
He replied, " These are my mother and brethren." How 
did those awaiting feel at thus being ignored? 

Bring the application to our own homes and compre- 
hend the lowly Jesus. The history of this man was 
written hundreds of years after its occurrence. Bring 
this historical or allegorical Jesus into our own time. 



11 

Would we follow blindly, or call our reasoning powers 
into question? Which? But take the risen Christ, 
the bright illumination of the heretofore misunderstood 
God — the word spoken into a psychic atmosphere 
— the perfection of the ideal life — when mortal mind 
with its selfish, ignorant beliefs has been cruci- 
fied and the God, the Creator, the Spirit of Truth 
reigns, controls both the spiritual and material forces, 
then the perfection of living — the Comforter has come. 
God who commanded light to shine out of darkness 
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 
Matthew begins his gospel with these words : 
" The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son 
of David, the son of Abraham," through forty-two gen- 
erations, when Jacob begat Joseph, the husband o£ 
Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise ; when as 
His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they 
came together, she was found with child ofthe Holy Ghost. 
If Joseph the husband came ofthe house of David, but 
knew not Mary till she had brought forth her first-born 
son, who was Mary, and how could the child born of 
the Holy Ghost belong to the house of David? The 
plea of kinship will not answer our reasoning mind. 
Why not give Mary's geneology instead of Joseph's? In 
those far-off days women were the silent ones, and Jew T - 



12 

ish history records only the paternal line, yet Jesus was 
no child of Joseph, in a material line, but tracing back 
the fingerprints in the sand the one universal truth 
comes to the front, even the evolutionary process of 
psychic development — the prophets, patriarchs, and 
kings — women dethroned if it pleases Jewish history — 
we reach the great cause and the one source of all life — 
God. Jesus — historical or allegorical — was God's in- 
dividualization through Mary as an instrument, whether 
she was known by Joseph or not. Leaving out the 
question of the Immaculate Conception, because all 
legends, all mythological ideas are born of the miracu- 
lous, and the question does not pertain to the souPs con- 
sciousness, but to reasoning mind — what did Mat- 
thew mean? Why was it necessary to show the lineage 
and raise a question at the climax over such a material, 
unimportant point? Would we believe and accept such 
wonders to-day and follow so lowly a Jesus? No. 

John is more spiritual in his conception, for he deals 
not with this part of mortal belief, but says : 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in 
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; 
and without Him was not anything made that was made. 
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness 
comprehendeth it not." 

Which seems the inspired writer ? 



13 

Matthew deals with the material, mortal man, and is 
filled with errors. 

John catches the conception of God and writes in 
touch with the infinite. 

Matthew shows us Jesus. 

John teaches us God. 

"He was in the world, and the world was made by 
Him, and the world knew Him not." 

The prophets knew Him, and Jesus knew Him. The 
apostles knew Him through Jesus as a medium, and 
their works were limited by their faith. 

Moses recognized Him in the burning bush. Elijah 
heard Him in the still, small voice that spake not in the 
tempest or the earthquake, but came in the silence. 

What is now has always been. God is the Alpha 
and Omega — God is the Word, and when He spoke 
creation began. 

The vibrations have widened century after century. 
The same psychic atmosphere exists above the clouds of 
earth that existed in the beginning. God cannot change. 
Everything else changes by suggestion, that has grown 
into custom. 

u The mists came up and covered the earth " and 
shut out God. 

There was perfect harmony in the beginning until 
evolutionary process, with its creative energy, brought 
to perfection its physical development, Man — with his 



14 

dual mind, the objective or reasoning mind shutting out 
the subjective or intuitive. 

Fisk says: "The primal origin of consciousness is 
hidden in the depths of bygone eternity." He also 
says : " Universal struggle for existence having suc- 
ceeded in bringing forth that consummate product of 
creative energy — the human soul — has done its work 
and will presently cease. In the lower region of or- 
ganic life it must go on, but as a determining factor in 
the highest works of evolution it will disappear." 

Why? 

Because evolution must proceed within man himself. 

The sons of man must evolve into the sons of God. 
When the human soul has awakened to its environments 
it will vibrate into its own vast eternity. 

There must be friction, because we do not always 
comprehend the struggle. Jesus was cognizant of this 
friction and He prayed, "Father, if it be possible let this 
cup pass from me." But it was not possible. 

Soul cannot come into its own but by crucifixion of 
its mortal consciousness, but when the dark hour is 
past and the resurrection is assured, let us not live in the 
shadow of the cross, but beyond in the illumination. 
Carry the transfigured, risen Christ to suffering fellow- 
men. 

We are so tired of the shadows — so weary of the end- 
less wounds of agonizing pain that the ages have laid 
upon us. We cry out with strong heart, yearning for 



15 

the sunlight of Love to fall across our weary lives. We 
have suffered so long, and the pain seems never to have 
run its length. Give us peace, love ; and sunshine — and 
it is ours for the asking. 

Fisk, moreover, says: "Through misery that has 
seemed endless, men have thought on that gracious life 
and its sublime ideal and have taken comfort in the 
sweetly solemn message of peace on earth, good-will to 
men." 

This is God's message through his inspired medium — 
and it covers all the Gospels. If we are not at peace 
with our neighbors life with us is out of shape. The 
circumference has sprung a tangent. One God ; one 
creative force; one spirit pervades everything. 

He is the same God that Adam recognized, that spoke 
through Moses, Elias, John, and Jesus. Each one inter- 
preted Him differently, according to the signs of the 
times. 

Moses' dispensation was amongst an entirely different 
set of people than those Jesus ministered unto. Each 
century has created its own ideal of God, but at no 
time has any man seen God. " While my glory passeth 
by I will cover thee with my hand — but my face shall 
not be seen." 

We only see 

"What feeble lenses and weak sight may scan, 
And thus a double lessening, double veiling 
Of the unimagined glory of a thought of Him 
Who dwells between the cherubim ! 



16 

" The vision 
Which angels might receive straightway 
Unshorn of any ray, 
And hold in full possession, 
Must enter by the portal 
Of faculties— sin-paralyzed and mortal. " 

And God always appeared to his children in visions. 
He took not away the pillar of cloud by day — nor the 
pillar of fire by night. He led them by devious turn- 
ings. Often they had to retrace their steps, and the 
labyrinth seemed endless, but mortal mind must battle 
for supremacy, and by repeated falls and beseeching 
cries rise again to the illuminated path. 

The temptation of Jesus was this same struggle. 

"At length there came a wonderful movement — silent 
and unnoticed as are the beginnings of all great revolu- 
tions," and now the world of the present day is starting 
into understanding of the grand conception of the Spirit 
that breathed o'er Eden. 

He walks in the earth and the heavens, 

The Lord in His raiment bright. 
His robe is crimson at evening, 

It is gold in the morning light, 
And it trails on the dusky mountains 

With a silver fringe at night. 

High over the people thronging 

Is the light of His pure face. 
Can the uttermost need and longing 

Come fronting that awful place? 
But to touch the beautiful garment 

Is a comfort and a grace. 



17 

He turns, and I am not hidden, 

And He smiles and blesses low. 
Did the gift come all unbidden ? 

Oh, to think He would not know, 
Though even the hem of His garment 

It was faith that touched Him so. 

By Moses came the law, but by Jesus came faith. In 
the early records there is no talk of sickness — healing 
arts were not necessary. " Whatever theory of creation 
we may hold, we must believe that in the mind of the 
Creator was a pure and perfect ideal." Moses was the 
lawgiver and the prophet that spake face to face with 
God. We find murmurings and discontent all through 
the wanderings of the children of Israel, but we find 
death coming only through age. ~No talking of sickness 
or disease, only disease of harmony; a decrease according 
to the laws of progression, for nothing human remains. 
If we do not increase in the strength of God, we decrease 
along the lines of mortal supremacy. 

Jesus' ministry was one of healing. Sickness filled 
the land. The people kept not the covenant, but lost 
the balance between God and man. Many strange doc- 
trines had sprung up, and by evil suggestions physical 
suffering became paramount — the land was defiled— 
then came Jesus healing and teaching. Not to build 
churches or establish creeds, but to lift a cursed nation 
above the surroundings of its own diseased imagination. 
And allegorically He taught them that by finding the 
kingdom of heaven all else should be added. But the 



IK 

kingdom of heaven was not external, not a far-off, vis- 
ionary place, but within, and the way to open the gates 
was to leave all, possessions, seats of custom, kindred, 
and by the crucifixion of mortal self, vain, ignorant, au- 
tocratic, deluded self-consciousness; and after the three 
dark days, when the earthly ties should quake through 
the friction of self, the veil of the fleshly temple be 
rent — then should we rise illuminated in the God-con- 
sciousness — and all mortal enemies be vanquished, dis- 
ease should be no more, because God is perfect and has 
come into his kingdom, and we are no more subject to 
the law because we are born again of the fire and water. 

Stars no longer fight in their course against Siscera, 
because the spirit hath made thee free. Free to enjoy 
your birthright here on earth. Free to receive your 
blessing even though your mess of pottage hath slipped 
from your grasp. But, having received the blessing of 
the anointing, you must not shut up the gift within self, 
but let your illuminated soul countenance shine before all 
men. Nay, you cannot hide it, for it will go before and 
illumine your path, and all power will be given you, 
power over all forces, visible and invisible. 

By concentration the desires of your mind will go 
forth like the dove and return with the olive branch. 

What is concentration? The shutting off of all ma- 
terial, external sense and dwelling in the holy of holies, 
the inner sanctuary — the opening of the sixth sense, or 



19 

the inner man — the God plane — and where God and 
angels dwell the place is rarefied. 

Moses approached this plane by laying off the mater- 
ial sense, expressed as taking off his shoes. Elijah met 
God in the stillness of the cave — shut in from mortal 
thought. 

Is this power easily accomplished? Very. 

Not suddenly, but by power and might, and steady 
purpose, unflinching desire, and patience. 

You may start for the land of Canaan, but the flesh- 
pots of Egypt will often call you back, and weary of the 
noonday heat you may sit down by cooling streams and 
hang your harps on the willow trees, but the morning 
light will find you pressing onward, for having started 
there is no turning back, and there is much of your past 
life to unravel. Only by perseverance can you ascend 
into the mount of transfiguration. Nor can you long 
abide there for your work lies in the vale below\ 

Clairvoyance and clairaudience are attributes of this 
inner self. Were I to put in words the strange visions 
that come to me through this unfoldment, the material 
world might deem me insane. At first, the wonders 
were so great I consulted a celebrated M. D., and asked 
if I were fitting myself for an enclosure of stone walls. 
I even went to a phrenologist, and satisfied my mortal 
pride. 

I was like Thomas; I wanted to put my fingers in 
the wound-prints — and I did. 



20 

You ask, did I suffer during this crucifixion? The 
answer lies too deep for words. Because I was so 
blindly egotistical on an intellectual plane, I thought I 
did not need God, and I shut him out of my calculations. 

So the war went on, and I had to learn of sorrows 
and griefs. This great reasoning, mortal mind must 
know the why and wherefore before I learned to look 
within. How did the end come? There was no end, 
simply the beginning. I gave up and said, " lead me; 
teach me. 7 ' Two graves had to be opened before the 
truth came to me. I had to go to the very border land 
before my crucifixion was accomplished- — but while I 
was musing the fire burned — and now I faint not in 
the days of adversity. 

" For what is Mine shall know My face. 77 

What is Telepathy? Soul communing. Is it a 
common attribute? To some, yes. To others, faintly 
perceptible, but not understood. You can 7 t reason over 
it. You must just simply accept blindly and await de- 
velopment. The answer may come by clairaudience or 
by clairvoyance. It depends upon your psychic devel- 
opment. 

Listen to Cornelius Agrippa on this subject : " There 
is an art known only to a few, by which the purified 
and faithful, soul of man may be instructed and illum- 
inated so as to be raised at once from the darkness of 
ignorance to the light of wisdom and knowledge. If 
the soul is perfectly purified and sanctified she becomes 



21 

free in her movements. She sees and recognizes the 
divine light, and she instructs herself while she seems to 
be instructed by another. In that state she requires no 
other admonition except her own thought, which is the 
head and guide of the soul. She is then no more subject 
to terrestrial conditions of time but lives in the eternal, 
and for her to desire a thing is to possess it already. 
Man's power to think increases in proportion as this 
etheral and celestial power of light penetrates his mind, 
and strengthening his mental faculties, it may enable 
him to see and perceive that which he interiorly thinks, 
just as if it were objective and external. 

*' Spirit, being unity and independent of our ideas of 
space, and all men having, therefore, essentially the 
same spirit, the souls of men existing at places widely 
distant from each other may thus enter into communica- 
tion and converse with each other exactly in the same 
manner as if they had met in their physical bodies. In 
this state man may perform a great many things in an 
exceedingly short period of time, so that it may seem to 
us as if he had required no time at all to perform it. 
Such a man is able to comprehend and understand 
everything by the light of the universal power of guid- 
ing intelligence with which he is spontaneously united." 

Many theories are advanced for the sake of this great 
science, but no one has laid down a law by which any 
one can work. Hudson has given us a clearer under- 
standing of this great subjective mind — as separate and 



22 

distinct from the objective mind, bat connected by auto- 
suggestion. We have all grasped Hudson's teaching as 
a drowning man catching at straws, for he gives us a 
working hypothesis, but he doesn't tell any one how 
to obtain the key, because the development lies in self. 
You must work out your own salvation. First find 
your own kingdom — and so I abrogate to myself no 
power when I grasp the great God-consciousness. That 
is all-pervading. Crucifying mortal mind, I let the 
illuminated soul follow its own direction. I myself am 
nothing, for God is all. The spirit forces that dominate 
the soul plane must w T ar against the material forces that 
rule the physical plane until the veil of the temple be 
rent. 

Spirit being everywhere and mortal man only a tem- 
ple for this spirit's individualization, when by concen- 
tration I am able to rise above the realization of the 
physical — the spirit being only a part of the vast and 
one great God — I am able by auto-suggestion to call to 
my inner sense perception what I desire, or else to send 
in any direction my loosened or freed spirit. 

Results differ according to material bodies. For in- 
stance: I wish to reach a distant friend; I succeed; 
he is conscious of my presence, of my thoughts, of my 
acts — perhaps he thinks he is only dreaming, consciously 
or unconsciously — I know better because he writes of 
these dreams and thoughts and they are just what I 
willed. I am conscious at the time only by impressions, 



23 

the material effect ; but I received those letters and read 
them by my spirit's understanding even before the post- 
man leaves them at my door. This person is a mater- 
ialist on whom I experiment without his knowledge. 

But let me draw toward me one versed in psychic 
knowledge and the result is different — then I see; I can 
clasp hands and feel the touch of flesh, living flesh ; and 
I can converse and receive replies. 

~No, the other psychist gets only impressions, because 
his soul is beyond the body and has come to me — and 
unless he suddenly awakes and recalls the power, the 
knowledge does not rise above the threshold of conscience. 

For mere curiosity, I began, by request, telepathic 
communication with another party with whom I was 
not en rapport. He was a reasoner and I don't know 
just what he did expect, but the matter was a failure. 
Why? Because I had no interest in satisfying mere 
curiosity and I was not attracted to or by that sphere. 
Our circles did not combine, but this I assert as a fact, 
demonstrable to my own satisfaction, that when I am 
interested and pleased to experiment I can and do hold 
communion with kindred souls by telepathy. 

Another fact worthy of study is this — that the best 
results are obtainable when experiments are made be- 
tween the sexes — male and female are complementary and 
complete a sphere. 

By telepathy, all mental and medical cures are affected 
— drugs do no good unless accompanied by faith — they 



24 

may relieve the effects of disease but they do not remove 
the cause, and while they may build up one portion they 
tear down another — but mental healing goes direct to the 
cause, eradicates the error, and allows life to course freely 
through its channels. Through the power of telepathy, 
suffering humanity can be lifted above its sorrowful, 
saddened plane of existence into the free, pure air of 
the sunshine of health. 

A patient in western Missouri whom I have never 
seen, says she can often feel my presence near. Once I 
wrote her, "Silently hold my letter near you ; the mag- 
netism will permeate your body and make you feel rested 
and comforted all day/' She replied that she did as 
directed, and in the evening changing her woolen wrap- 
per the electricity emanated in all directions with a hiss- 
ing, burning noise, and also her felt slippers were so 
charged — a very common occurrence where woolen goods 
play the part of conductor — but she had never noticed 
it before. 

Was this suggestion ? Perhaps. But what generated 
the unusual electric disturbance? 

Was it vibrations? Yes. 

Once this quotation expressed my views. 

" Out in the silent dark I grope alone 

With human fingers tangling up the threads 
Of God's eternal truth. Sullen, I moan, 
The light is for the dead — blessed dead." 



25 

Now I know differently. I had an aged and enfeebled 
mother under my care for a few short months. She lived 
entirely on my mentality. I thought and acted ibr her, 
but I knew she must soon pass over, because she wanted 
to go and be with the father, who had preceeded her by 
only a few months. 

My dear friends, you must feel the vibrations from 
my pen as I write these words in all tenderness and love. 
Not in science, for I gave blindly. My crucifixion had 
not been finished. 

For some days before her spirit departed I felt an 
awe, and I nightly dreamed dreams, and felt the per- 
fume of flowers we use around the dead. 

At nine o'clock one night the summons came, and as 
I picked her up and laid her on the bed (she had been 
down stairs a few short hours before) I knew I had to 
face my darkest hour — and self was lost in the God- 
consciousness. 

By artificial means employed by two physicians, life 
was kept in the poor, tired body for thirteen hours, hop- 
ing loved ones from a distance might reach her, but 
failed in the end. 

For those thirteen hours I sat by her side giving her 
all my vitality and magnetic force, with this one sug- 
gestion ringing itself through my brain, " Go, Soul, since 
go thou must, but go without a struggle." She was 
conscious all the tiuie. The medicine they poured into 
her never affected the physical system. It had run its 



race and the outgrown shell was to be left, but the soul 
was shining clear and bright. " No pain," she said, 
"onlv tired." 

I try so often to imagine that feeling — the tired body 
dropping away from the soul. No pain — only tired ! 

As I saw the end drawing nearer and nearer I put my 
open palm on her forehead and with the other hand 
clasped the tired fingers that would so soon be folded over 
the quiet heart — life's labor done — and let all the vitality 
flowing through my body be given her, and as the sun 
poured in the window, and the birds took up their ma- 
tins, quietly, peacefully, sweetly, the breath came slower 
and slower, and without a struggle, without a murmur, 
the mortal eyes closed and the inner sight was opened. 
To the opening of the door forever have I been, and if 
I stand without and knock, oft times a ray comes to 
mortal ken, and I know and feel I have held com- 
munion with the dear ones on the other side. 

Whether my hands held the magnetic power then, or 
whether they gathered in those hours the blessing of the 
spirit — I know not — I wish I did — I only know this 
power has come to me. 

To come face to face, for the first time, with death 
leaves an impression of awe and stateliness that time 
nor place can ever obliterate, and to live over those 
scenes in thought is to return in spirit. 

"In the light of the King's countenance is life." 

Some one lately asked me what I believed regarding 



27 

the future life. I have no belief — I do not care. It 
does not affect me. I only know I do not believe in the 
material heavens the Pulpits declare. If we do have to 
walk golden streets, or sit down and play forever on 
golden harps, it will be very monotonous, and very 
glaring. 

I have begun my progression here, and my work lies 
here until the soul grows tired of this physical frame, 
when it will lay it aside and continue its course — but 
the end is not yet, and what there is to learn I stand 
fearlessly and eagerly " amid the eternal ways" ready 
to learn, and when the door opens for me I shall just as 
fearlessly and just as eagerly take up the work beyond. 

" Or ever the silver cord be loosened, or the golden 
bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, 
or the wheel be broken at the cistern. Then shall the 
dust return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall 
return to God who gave it." 



IL 
MATERIAL FORCES. 

The mists that have enveloped the earth have shut 
out the simple glories of all that is and all that ever 
will be. We stretch with yearning vision for the invis- 
ible, and our cries return to us with a faint echo of the 
minor chords of despondency. We want something — 
we know not what. We are tired of the creeds of men. 
We have found them wanting. Life drags itself out 
with pitiful, sad dejection. We are tired. We have 
striven for the unattainable and have found nothing. 
We awaken with a strange longing in our hearts, and 
we ponder over the mysteries of life, and are not satis- 
fied. All is so dreary, so unsatisfactory. We read 
books and they soothe for the time, but they teach us 
the unreal. We try friendship, but we find it galling 
because envious and one-sided. One gives, the other 
takes, and the friend turns our enemy at last. 

The broken pitchers of the Midianites, a few lights 
gone out, and the cry of fear goes up, and we turn and 
rend each other ! 

We try love, but it makes us more restless than ever. 
We are getting nearer the truth. We are finding our- 
selves in another. We are nearer completing the sphere. 



29 

But after a time love, too, proves fallacious. Love is 
so exacting. It wants all, and we have not all to give. 
We feel a loss, a hesitancy, a spot untouched by mortal 
ken. Where is it, and what is it ? We feel the beating, 
pulsing life against the bars of mortality, but our wills 
are invincible. They must know the why and where- 
fore. Oh, the inexpressible bliss of closing our eyes to 
the blind, ruling, scheming science of life's material 
round and drifting on the tide of ideal reality ! Not 
to struggle ! Not to know ! Not to care ! Just to 
dream dreams and see visions, and be at peace with our 
lives. The impractical side of life hems us in with 
walls of impenetrable thickness. If we make one little 
chink, after years of labor, and let the starlight of dreams 
shine on us we are censured, and unless we stand, strong 
in our own strength, and care not for the blasts of the 
mighty or the mud of the lowly, we must go down to 
greater depths because we have gained one little vision 
of the truth, and if we turn back we are damned. 

There is no turning back. Begin climbing, and you 
must continue. Do not expect to reach the top. The 
time is not yet come, but the more surely we build, the 
higher we get, the easier will it be for another to climb 
above our footprints. Nothing comes to us but for the 
good of all. Nothing happens to one but the entire race 
is benefited. My disappointments are so meant. O, 
yes, they are hard, and I feel the fret and worry they 
produce, but I find myself always questioning what the 



30 

result will be. Pain always brings profit if we accept 
it in a kindly light. 

I know days of lingering suffering — when between 
the paroxysms of pain the sweetest thoughts have come 
to me unbidden, and each time the pain grew less. 

The lesson was kindly given, but we are so slow to 
learn. We want so much, but we want it all right now, 
and our weak strength is not sufficient to receive so 
great a gift. We must grow into the fulness. 

I am feeling the thrilling response of a great truth — 
but I have been years learning even a little — but the 
soul has awakened and now more surely as I go I find 
doors opening and the way clearing. 

No, it is not one green stretch of level land flowing 
with milk and honey. I cross mountains and I wade 
through deep, tempestuous waters, and often and often 
I faint by the wayside, and the grasshopper seems a 
burden, and the desire to push forward seems cold and 
lifeless, and I question everything, but my own forces 
pick me up and push me forward and greater strength 
comes with every failure. Only I count nothing a 
failure since all means a way to the end. 

W^hen we love we love blindly, and then some sad 
day we realize our mistake. One has mounted higher, 
and although we long and strive with all our soul to 
draw the loved one with us it is dead sea fruit — and in 
our bitterest hour the soul is alone. We are meant to 
rely on self — the ego — and not lean against another. 



3! 

The saddest word in the English language, and yet 
the strongest, is that word alone. With none to un- 
derstand, none to sympathize, none to feel the longings, 
yearnings! Thrown on our own resources we stagger 
and grasp for some prop to lean upon — but there is 
none. 

Then comes the blankest hour of life — to sink or 
swim ! 

We are so weak, so bruised and battered by winds of 
adversity — but we conquer by our own little efforts and 
strength comes, and by and by the victory, for we have 
conquered forever, and alone we stand. 

Alone with God. 

Nothing but good gravitates toward us — but we had 
to pass through blackest torment — for our power. 

And it is ours, now and forever more. And the 
loneliness and sadness is gone. For all things are ours 
by the power of Love. 

Vain imaginings of our own unlimited desire. What 
is wrong ? Have we missed the right interpretation of 
Truth, or are we on the wrong road after all? Is it 
better to sit down in the shade of the valley — the pale, 
purple light of the rainbow tints — and let mortal love 
cloud our eyes to the glorious, radiant beams of the 
mountain height of sunlight? 

Poor soul ! Not to know that having started on this 
upward climb often will you look back with sad and 
weary eyes to the monotony of the shadow, each day 



32 

growing weaker and wearier of the aimless existence. 
Yon may look back. You may even take one step 
backward, but there is no returning, for as you look up 
once more to the eternal sunlight you long more and 
more to reach the summit where the prismatic tints are 
blended into one great white light of eternal radiance. 

Soul must run the entire gamut. 

All was darkness, desolation, and despair in the 
valley below before the evolution began ; then the purple 
light of Love opened the Soul's eyes to the first dawn of 
day, then step by step, mistake after mistake, error upon 
error — tears more bitter than thought can imagine — it 
climbed the stairs of silence and came into its own and 
beheld the glorious Light, the Light that never was on 
sea or land. 

People come to me and say, we cannot find the way, 
we have read until we are tired, we have tested every 
experience and we find no law to guide us, and we are 
tired of the struggle. 

Then I say, oh, my friends, we may put you on the 
way, we may point it out to you, but you must build for 
yourself. I may take you over my tracks but they will 
not satisfy you because it is not your own way. Spirit 
is the same with all, but the mortal bodies are builded 
differently from each other by preconceived thought, 
and we may all reach the same goal, but our ways will 
deviate on the journey. 

I sit and watch the hum of life go by. Here a wagon 



38 

with horses slowly dragging their burdens — now a hand- 
somely equipped carriage — now a man riding a wheel 
— the ears ladened with their human freight, some of it 
misshapened and dwarfed, some of it full of vitality and 
mentality, and some ladened down with the sadness of 
mortal failure. 

I sit and muse on the little lives of men and how we 
mar them by our envious, jealous, unkind thoughts. 
What are they living for? Future reward; and what 
will it be? 

We build our own ideas of heaven, and some picture 
a hell ! 

I w r ant no greater, more horrible idea of hell than I 
have experienced right here on earth — and the heaven 
of our dreams will be disappointing. 

W T hat does the future mean to me or what do I care 
for the heaven I have had thrown at me while the pres- 
ent is one howling bitterness of woe ! 

I want to live now and enjoy this existence without 
questioning the future for which I do not care, conscious 
only that the greater progression I make now, the better 
Eternity will be. 

Some one said to me the other day, "you dwell so 
much on God." Why not? God is all that is; and 
what God is, I know not. The Bible did not teach him 
to me and for years and years I feared the thought of 
this avenging, angry being who would create a hell and 
a devil and send his own creations into this everlasting 



84 

punishment. So I left him alone — put him out of my 
calculations, and, as I thought, builded my own life — 
alone. Physical suffering opened the spiritual vision 
and this God began to show himself to me. In the 
people that pass my windows, in the dumb animals, in 
the birds, the flowers, the grass, in the mighty rocks 
strong in their quietness, the ever restless sea, the faint 
streaks of dawn, the splendor of the noonday sun, and 
the trailing clouds of glory of the after glow ! 

I find Him in the sections of an orange, of every fruit 
that grows, and every flower, arranged with mathemat- 
ical precision. 

What is this God? I know not, only I cannot fear 
what is myself. I see Him all around and within. I 
link myself with His intentions and I feel the increasing 
vibrations of His love because there is nothing else to 
know. This creative force has individualized itself 
through my mortal body, and when the mortal race is 
run my eyes shall be opened clearly to what has been all 
the time. 

Death makes no change. 

I am weary of the fallacies of mortal mind — its nar- 
rowness, bigotry, idolatry, and ignorance; where nothing 
lasts, nothing remains right, and nothing stays wrong. 
Changes always ! and we grow no nearer true compre- 
hension. I am weary of it all ! 

For many years I was weary of pain, of sickness. 
Drugs relieved for a time perhaps, but the pain returned. 



Then came one great agony, and two ways were pointed 
to rue ; one of invalidism, or I was told, like Mrs. Dom- 
bey, " make an effort," and this from a scientific medical 
man ! 

So I turned my back to the wall and got up, intend- 
ing to find a surer means than this uncertainty or end it 
all ! And so it has ever been. The law shuts us in and 
idle gossip harts, and we live for the criticism of the 
world. 

Not to know that the only law is the natural law ! 

Not to know that the discords of inharmonious life 
are simply the surroundings of our own fretful, worried 
nature ! 

Nothing harms me but what I, myself, do. 

Nothing can touch me but as I invite it. 

What I give out I get in return. 

Simply a very plain way of* living the Golden Rule. 

People are continually knocking their heads against 
brick walls. The knock hurts themselves only; the 
wall stands unmoved. The soul is unconquerable. It 
stands alone, and the harder the blows the stronger it 
towers above the bulwarks of weak, erring, blinded hu- 
man intellect. 

"Out of the night that covers me, 
Black as the pit, from pole to pole, 
I thank whatever gods there be 
For my unconquerable soul. 



36 

"Tn the fell clutch of circumstance 
I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
Under the bludgeonings of chance 
My head is bloody, but unbowed. 

"Beyond the place of wrath and tears 
Looms but the horror of the shade, 
And yet the menace of the years 
Finds and shall find me unafraid. 

"It matters not how straight the gate, 

How charged with punishment the scroll; 
I am the master of my fate, 
I am the captain of my soul." 

This little poem helped me over a rough hour once, 
and I give it now, with my own thought vibrations, 
knowing it will help others. Some poems, some thoughts 
are just as much inspired, to my thinking, as ever the 
words of the Bible. Even more so, for I comprehend 
better the feelings of humanity now, than I can go back 
and pick up the thoughts and inspirations of those writers 
of the Bible, because their material surroundings, social 
laws, and customs, surrounded by the mysteries of the 
East, were not as our surroundings. 

But I seem to multiply words and yet repeat always 
one Truth — the all-conquering Truth of the ages — that 
not around us is the means of faith, not in idly prepared 
words of salaried men of God — though at times we catch 
the inner vibrations of a truth they dare not utter because 
their Creed forbids ! — but within is the fountain of Light, 
and only by the inner vision of sin-paralyzed mortal 



vision, can we find what we seek so pereeveringly — but 
not patiently — in the external world— and find not. 

By introspection all gates are opened, all ways are 
cleared, all discords abolished, all pain healed, and di- 
vine, complete, diatonic harmony, resounding through all 
the ages is found, lying dormant, only awaiting recog- 
nition. 

The Kindom of Heaven is within. 

It is the Kindom of Love — and Light. 

Finding this, all else is found. 



38 



IIL 
SPIRIT FORCES* 

In dealing with this subject I am perfectly aware I 
am bringing down on my head much criticism. 

I am not seeking to establish any theory, but to deal 
with such facts as have come to my personal knowledge. 

It is a subject of widespread interest and yet of much 
doubt. There are hours when I lose faith and call it 
all imaginations of a supersensitive brain, but the real- 
ity of the truth forces itself upon my doubts and will 
not be put aside for a more convenient season. 

I firmly believe that the cloud of witnesses in the 
unseen world are close around us, leading us for our 
good, and our darkest hours are the seasons when mortal 
mind wars against this control and the inharmonious 
atmosphere admits disease. The sooner we accept this 
fact the quicker will be our freedom. 

Horoscopes may be cast and books on astrology be 
lavishly printed, but Eleanor Kirk has said one true 
thing if nothing else be said, and in words to this eifect: 
"The signs of the zodiac may rule our mortal destinies, 
and we all find similarity in the rules laid down. For 
instance, Pisces foreshadowed my early years quite closely 
until I found many phenomena outside the precepts, 



but could. not comprehend, until she nobly acknowl- 
edged the discrepancy and says, one born into the Spirit 
towers above all material surroundings and makes and 
controls its own destiny, and then the signs fail." So I 
lay aside my horoscope. A phrenologist examined my 
head ; that, too, I outgrew. Palmists and gipsies read 
my life line; they, too, proved fallacious. Planchettes 
and table rappings and furniture knocks never inter- 
ested me. It seems so absurd that the spirits of departed 
ones need condescend to material, narrow surroundings 
to communicate with loved ones when the one great 
mind is all the universe ! 

Not to know that one's own thought is sufficient to 
produce any phenomena! Absurd ! 

Wonderful and startling communications have been 
given — and learned men look and are astonished, and 
even students of Hudson's Law of Psychic Phenomena 
put aside these questions and confess themselves baffled. 

The subjective mind knows all; past, present, and 
future; whether we have sufficient development to draw 
the knowledge above the threshold of consciousness or 
not, yet it works out its own way, even if that way be 
by raps or knocks — in other words, it is Telepathy. 

This law is my foundation for my own experiments, 
and I give them through no sense of egotism or desire 
to assert a law for others ; only this, by steps that each 
individual makes, the race may better climb. 

Perhaps, being a psychic with a strangely developed 



40 

nervous system, I may get stranger results than others. 

I have not completed my investigations and never 
expect to, and I am open to convictions. 

Between Spiritualism and Spiritism there is a wide 
difference, in my estimation. I will first take up Spirit- 
ualisui — a very interesting and wonderful power — and, 
if the conditions be favorable, easily acquired. 

Now, this is my belief— which I again repeat — and it 
is from Hudson. 

My subjective mind being my storehouse of memory — 
and the seat of all emotions — knows everything ; past, 
present, and future ; things I may have known and for- 
gotten, or things my objective mind may never have 
been conscious of. Time and space being not consid- 
ered, this subjective mind may be en rapport with any 
other subjective mind on this plane, or on the spiritual — 
because it is the soul. 

A spiritualist medium being better developed than I, 
can come in touch with my subjective mind, when both 
are passive, and read for me what I cannot see or deduce 
for myself. But if I shut off my subjective mind by 
auto-suggestion, he might sit until Gabriel blows the 
trumphet and nothing will he see — though all the wild 
Indians and material mediums of the Irish world throng 
around him in droves. As if my departed loved ones 
needed an Indian brave to approach me ! I asked a 
spiritualist once why they always used so illiterate a 
medium. She replied, " that Indians being so natural 



41 

in their lives clung closer to us and were floating nearest 
earth, because not having progressed (?) on this sphere, 
and having entered eternity, had not realized their 
chance of progression over there." And yet, it seems to 
me, they are especially favored since they can reach up 
to any degree of heaven and bring back messages from 
the more saintly. An Indian, "to raise a mortal to the 
skies and draw an angel down !" 

I set down nothing in malice nor will I use names, 
for these mediums are well known around this city — 
and Washington is very much given up to seeking the 
occult through spiritualism. 

There is one medium on whom I base most of my cal- 
culations. I will call him Mr. A., and I want to say, he 
is an honest, true gentleman ; a firm believer in his faith, 
and altogether true to his convictions. I am very much 
obliged for all the information gained through him. 

In June, 1897, I made my first trial, merely through 
curiosity, and not as an experiment. From this sitting 
I gained but little personal information as I was much 
interested in a friend's romance, and my mind seemed 
filled with her desires, so my reading was all for her, 
but I was promised better luck for myself the next year, 
and a death by pistol shot, and some letters that I car- 
ried were interpreted, even the names of the writers. 
These letters were held at the base of the cerebellum. 
According to J. H. Dewey, this is the brain of the 
inner sight, One card bore the compliments of an aged 



42 

frienfl, and this friend was promised me as a husband, 
and his parents in the spirit world stood near and 
besought me to accept him. When I add that this 
friend was bordering on seventy, lived in a little coun- 
try village, and had lately buried his second wife, you 
can understand what a flattering prospect this was. 
My stars failed to ascend the next year; instead, they 
fought in their course against me, and yet who knows ? 
It is always darkest before dawn, and I waded through 
blackest midnight before I reached the sunlight of the 
present. The pistol shot was authentic, and carried off 
a few months later a dear friend and companion — my 
beautiful collie dog. 

In November of the same year I was passing through 
the city and much depressed in spirit over a seeming 
failure of life's forces; on the impulse of a moment, if 
we dare call spirit leadings impulses, I again visited 
Mr. A. He accurately and allegorically described the 
tumult I was under, and advised me to remain at home 
as a death was in my path. He described the little 
cemetery and even the name of the town. It is useless 
to say I acted on my own responsibility and did not stay 
at home. Six months later I was summoned to that 
home to see my dear father laid to rest in that little 
cemetery. Would you call this suggestion? No. He 
was reading my subjective mind, and I certainly never 
connected this prophesied death with my father, a man 
of robust physique and good health. 



43 

This death changed life for me. I took my. aged 
mother, enfeebled in mind and body, entirely under my 
care — and in early June we moved to Washington. 

Then I made my third visit to Mr. A., but with this 
difference, I had begun to develop my own psychic pow- 
ers, and received my own impressions allegorically and 
clairvoyantly. 

He described my mental conditions, told me of the 
influence of friends, and conditions I most wanted to 
know, and took up my life in the same allegory I myself 
used. Does this look like mind reading or spirit voices ? 

For the third time he interpreted letters for me, and 
failed to sense they had every time been from the same 
parties. Why ? Because I shut off this information. 

He told me of my father's death and of my mother's 
condition, and said," When the leaves begin to fall, she 
will join him." 

I leave the result of this sitting until later, and take 
up chance sittings of other mediums. 

The next was a public hall and the medium a stranger. 
In these public seances articles are placed on the table 
to attract the spirits. Bosh ! I used my mind and got 
my message. 

She described the manner of my father's death, which, 
objectively, none of us knew since he passed away sud- 
denly and in health, and had no organic trouble. Sub- 
jectively, of course, I knew. 

She brought me this message from him; " That I 



44 

was vexed over a missive I had sent out and had re- 
ceived no reply, but it was all right, the silence meant 
good, and I would hear that week." Her reading was 
correct in every particular. 

The next one was also public and the most amusing — 
twenty-five cents admission — private parlor, and three 
mediums present. We all sat around the room and 
waited. Some left when told a collection would be 
raised. The leader began to sing, but she was not fa- 
miliar with the words and could not find her glasses, so 
the song ended abruptly. Then a little man, with a 
great big book, began to promenade the floor, and fi- 
nally, with an humble apology for his nervousness, jerked 
out some words that were meant for a poem. They 
failed to reach my ears. Then there was a lengthy ad- 
dress by the leader, without any reference to grammat- 
ical construction, and it was all about the Spanish war 
and blood and all things horrible. I thought the spirits 
had taken flight, and wished sincerely I had, but it 
came to an end in time, and communications began in 
regular order.. Not one was passed; each got his little 
message in regular rotation, but I don't know what 
mine was or from whence it came. I never heard of 
any of the spirits she brought me, but she explained I 
had so many around me she could hardly discern their 
names. She said I was planning three trips and not to 
go on any of them, which I most certainly did not, and 
she left me floating on a sea of doubt. Up rushed an- 



other medium, with linger pointed most meuancingly,and 
told me I was worrying over an absent friend, but I would 
hear from him soon, or else see him. All very comfort- 
ing but not realistic. Then came the little man, and 
being quite weary, I concluded I would try my power. 
He asked to hold my hand. I consented. He said, 
" You are not a spiritualist but you know something of 
the science;" then he shook his head and said, " I can 
get uothing, and you are the first with whom T have 
failed." He looked so heartbroken and ready to cry I 
almost relented, but drew him back to me the second 
time with same result. Then I did relent, and the third 
time I let him read my line of work. He seemed so 
pleased at his final success I told him the failure was 
not due to his lack of power, but I had shut him off. I 
was relieved when that meeting ended. 

In October came a renowned, world-famed spiritual- 
ist to our city, and crowds flocked to his public seances. 
I received a very clear communication from him regard- 
ing my work, and I decided to test his private sittings — 
three dollars a test — and mine lasted ten minutes. When 
I entered the room, he said, "I see a great big 'S' over 
you." " Yes," I sai 1, " perhaps you do; I have just been 
discussing the merits of the S. A. L. Railroad." u Oh, 
yes," he replied, " that is correct, for thoughts are things." 

I don't recall anything he told me, excepting that 
death was not near me for twelve months, anyhow. 
(Mark this !) 



46 

Afterwards, I visited a great titled medium who had 
studied in India with the Mahatmas. I know but little 
of Theosophy, but I thought these worthy rulers of 
thought did not mingle with the world or directly re- 
ceive students — perhaps my ignorance may be excused — 
but he did say he had traveled with Herrman, and did 
do many tricks of jugglery. Poor fellow ! I am sorry 
for him, as I heard lately he had injured his eyesight, 
and his power had departed. Well, I wrote ten ques- 
tions, enclosed them in an envelope, and kept them in 
my hand. He answered nine and gave them to me in 
writing, and all are wrong. I was to marry a very dear 
friend who already has a wife. A death was to occur 
on February 10th that would make changes for me. I 
am glad to say this is April and that death has not 
taken place. He promised my mother would be left me 
until 1900. 

The first week in November I visited a celebrated 
lady medium. She talked very nicely about broken 
anchors and precipices and will power and God. She 
sent me north and she sent me west and prophesied a 
change in my condition about November 25th. 

About two weeks later, my mother, sitting by the 
window, said, "All the leaves are off this tree." I 
looked up startled at the coincidence (?) of her remark. 
By the next noonday she was gone. 

Mark the result of the June reading of Mr. A. Was 
this suggestion? No; else all the others would have 



47 

sensed this condition. With the departure of this dear 
spirit a change in ray own forces came, not by ray own 
conscious act or will, but from that great subjective 
mind that rules all life when allowed to develop. Re- 
member, for six months I had watched over and guarded 
and cared for this life that was gone. She had lived on 
my mentality day and night with no intermission and I 
had gone to the verge of eternity with her, and when the 
mortal body was laid away I still carried the spirit and 
knew it not. When all was over I returned to the city 
and w r as thoroughly prostrated. I lay for days almost 
lifeless, not grieving, for death is a happy release to the 
soul anxious to go, and it is a selfish sin to wish back 
those who have won the victory. My mind was clear 
but the body was lifeless. I had given all my magnet- 
ism those hours of waiting, and was utterly depleted and 
crushed by a heavy load, but I was ignorant of the 
cause. My mother seemed nearer to me than in life. I 
would turn often and often to render her some little ser- 
vice. In the night I would get up and go to her bed 
and suddenly remember after some struggle she was not 
there. 

One night a voice spoke and said, " Consult a clair- 
voyant, a Mr. N., a stranger in the city." The next 
day I went to him. He said, " Why have you come to 
me? You need no spiritualist to read for you because 
you get your own interpretations. You have a power 
of your own and I can't get you an individual message 



48 

for you are too closely surrounded by thoughts belonging 
to others." Then I asked of the mother who had passed 
over two weeks before. Listen ! He said, " It is too soon; 
she has not yet realized herself; she is living on your 
mentality, and you are carrying her spirit on the other 
side just as you carried it here, but you must have a 
wonderful power that you have so far aided her progres- 
sion for me to even sense this condition in so short a 
period. Now use your power still further and send her 
spirit to its recognized plane." 

For a week after I never ceased my suggestions, and 
on Sunday afternoon the conditions broke and a blissful, 
divine harmony flooded my entire body, and I knew she 
was free and with the other dear loved one. 

Six months previous, when the father died, I was 
away from home and only reached there forty-eight 
hours after life had gone out. When I stood by his 
body I became subjective, and felt his spirit touch mine, 
and I said, ll Dear father, in the spirit land, lead and 
guide me into light." I felt then an answering glow, but 
knowing nothing of spirit forces, and thinking nothing 
of life beyond the body, I did not follow up this tie, 
but I remained in that old home three weeks as a mor- 
tal, physical coward. My nerves were completely un- 
strung, and I was positively afraid to be alone, even in 
the day time. I had brought down on my head a force 
of which I knew nothing. Being a thoroughly material 
man, of great intellect but no spirituality, he lingered 



4!) 

there in his old haunts for a long time. I felt no fear 
of ghosts and never imagined I saw anything, but I 
was conscious of the supernatural all around me. I 
wish I had know T n then what I know now. My father 
and I had always been closely associated in all the busi- 
ness ways of life and we most closely touched in intel- 
lect. Now, when the mother joined him I fought 
against using their forces. Life had not been all har- 
mony, and I was glad for them to be free from the 
trammels of the body and I did not want to link them 
with the earth thought, but it was to be. 

My life seemed tangled and mismated. I so often 
saw them near me in my dreams and my soul would cry 
out in its loneliness and yearning. For two months I 
fought against acknowledging spirit forces, but I knew 
I had not grasped the keynote of Truth. Just as surely 
as we are creatures of circumstance and knocked around 
by the mental atmosphere of association and material 
thought, just so surely is this spirit of ours — this great 
subjective mind — in communion with other subjective 
minds that are freed from the slavery of the body, and 
the two forces will war against each other until harmon}- 
is established. The natural law in the spiritual world 
must be acknowledged. One day, in greater despair 
than ever, I laid down my arms and said, " I give up 
the fight. If you can reach me, lead me; I am weary 
of the earthly struggle and I will follow this to the end." 
Then my soul went up into the mountain top, and I was 



50 

transfigured by the joyful radiance of the light thrown 
round me. Did I stay there? No, for my work was 
in the valley, but from that day on I have been at 
peace and I can ascend into that holy place at will and 
gain counsel along the roughest places. 

I will not say that life is an unruffled calm. I do 
not wish it so for that would mean a stand still, and my 
lesson is not all learned and will not be while I am in 
the body. I do not take the stand that most scientists 
do and claim to be invincible. While in the body I am 
subject to its external laws, but Truth can make me rise 
superior to its bodily ills. I will not say I do not 
know aches and pains. I profit by them and I con- 
quer them. 

Not long since I asked an M. D. for a prescription 
for a local complaint. He said, " Don't use drugs; you 
don't need them, and they will do you no good." Nor 
do they; so when I faint by the wayside I retire into the 
silence and call my forces to my aid. The power that 
flows through me for the good of others is existent still 
for me. I must naturally be depleted at times. The 
body gives out according to its laws. 

Jesus wearied and used no earthly means for restora- 
tion, but sought the silence of concentration and re- 
builded himself. 

In the beginning I was treated by suggestive thera- 
peutics and lifted from a state of suffering and invalid- 
ism. Now, having individualized my forces, suggestion 



51 

from another, to all appearances, fails. I have demon- 
strated this in myself by shutting off every symptom of 
pneumonia. It was no easy matter and required many 
days, but in that time I used no drugs and sought no 
physician. I was determined to conquer or die in the 
attempt. I conquered, and knew when material forces 
broke. It is not right nor helpful to others to claim 
we know not pain, because Truth has come to us. I 
am telling no secrets of our science by citing a few in- 
stances. One of the strongest men I know — a learned, 
skilful scientist, succumbed to la grippe. A patriarch 
of one of the most spiritual schools, that aims at immor- 
tality in the body, was injured by a street car. He 
lingered, suffering greatly — at last called in a celebrated 
mental scientist, for he was too depleted to recover lost 
power, although several months had elapsed since the 
accident. She effected an almost immediate relief, pro- 
duced sleep, and was most hopeful. Two weeks later I 
learned he had passed away and was cremated. Was 
he depleted of his spiritual power ? No, but the physi- 
cal body was. Seventy years had been given him and 
the spirit was ready for its further progress. 

A great healer in the extreme south and a great healer 
in the far north were friends. A child of the southern 
woman fell ill. None of that school could reach it, but 
the northern mind succeeded. 

" What was wrong? " I asked. The reply was, " what 
is mine will come to me; what is yours I cannot touch."' 



Perhaps this theory is all correct. T do not say. I 
will not take the stand another writer does and say, li I 
am the way." I am daily progressing and am open to 
conviction, and other ways may be better than mine. 
But this I know; the gift of healing is not of me, but 
some spirit force acting on and through my comprehen- 
sion. And what is the center of all spirit force? God. 

Occasionally some bright and shining light that has 
gained prominence among men steps to the front and 
with a clarion call speaks for freedom, and the public 
press takes up his words and echoes them far and wide. 
This is one great wave of vibrating force and lifts 
humanity many degrees higher. 

The Rev. Mr. Chadman, of New York, has lately elec- 
trified his church and stepped beyond the limits of the 
Methodist creed by boldly announcing the fallibility of 
the Bible. Bold, courageous man ! Dr. Lyman Abbott 
has come to the front for spiritism, and says, "I love to 
think my mother follows me with her eyes as she did 
when I was a boy. I love to believe that the strange, 
subtle, inexplicable, and indefinable influence that 
sometimes comes into my life is from her." 

From the hour I accepted this control, life has been 
brighter and happier. I am never alone, and I find my 
wishes and suggestions interpreted with a strange power. 

There is much mystery attached to the phenomena, 
and there are days when conditions are better than 
others and I get clearer results. 



Always my father materializes first, because he is 
stronger and more akin to the earth, and our brain 
power was similar. The mother was more spiritual, 
but the two combined complete the sphere and are one. 

My father often appears in the way I knew him best 
on earth and shows me leadings by written words. The 
mother appears in visions or allegories, and often the 
voice is distinctly heard, though in a slow, monotonous, 
far-off intonation. A blessed privilege is mine ! And 
I dare not be sceptical and doubt the phenomena. 

Lately, I attended a public seance of my former me- 
dium, Mr. A. It seemed farcical. I had been worried 
that day over personal matters, and sitting there, I said, 
"If Iain not guessing at shadows send me an answer 
through this medium." I tried to draw him to me. 
Three times during the evening he started in my direc- 
tion and each time was strangely held back. I got no 
message, but that night my father came to me in my 
sleep and answered me directly. Several days after I 
learned the result was correct. 

Boldly had I stood forth and said, my spirit friends 
need not come to me through illiterate mediums, when 
they wanted to communicate with me they could do so 
directly. Was this suggestion ? Of the very strongest. 
Xow, mark this. I said in the beginning that I got my 
best results from Mr. A. Since accepting spiritism I 
have made him four visits, and he has not been able to 
even try jancl read for me. At the last visit I said, well, 



54 

I will come no more; I am satisfied; and because he is 
so honest I told him why he failed. He frankly ad- 
mitted the wonder. 

There is so much charlatanry, so much trickery and 
fraud thrown around the science that the world must 
necessarily look with doubtful and questioning eyes. I 
will not use my power and forces for fortune telling or 
arranging sentimental scenes. My loved ones are too 
dear for such vulgar work. I read for no one. But 
the gift of healing for bettering the condition of others 
is mine to give — and the stones I carve out for myself 
are given readily and gladly that others may climb 
higher on the steps I make. 

There is one carious phenomena I must put in motion. 
The spirit forces and communications come quietly, 
softly, and sweetly. I awaken in the middle of the night 
and know they are with me — no fear, no nervousness. 

But I hold a telepathic communication with one in 
the body, and though many hundred miles intervene, 
space is nothing. Visions and impressions come as 
clairvoyance and clairaudience, but at times there is a 
most curious magnetic manifestation. I am always 
awake, and there are generally three vibrations, each 
wave growing stronger. It seems to be a hissing, burn- 
ing flame of electricity, and my body rocks and vi- 
brates on this electric wave. I am able to carry on a 
laughing commentary of the whole proceedings. On 
the last occasion I caught within my hand the warm, 



55 

living flesh and blood hand of my friend, and felt for a 
ring I knew the owner wore — not there — then I took 
the other hand and found the ring and twisted it around. 
Now, the strangest part of this phenomena is that the 
other party is not conscious of any act, but arises in the 
morning with simply an impression of something having 
occurred. I get up, bristling with electricity, have 
much trouble arranging my hair, and can send a shock 
through the body of another person even though he be a 
sceptic. On this last manifestion I said nothing, but 
wrote to the friend asking about the ring. The reply 
came, "I am having trouble with my finger and cannot 
wear the ring. In washing my hands soap blistered the 
flesh under the ring and I cannot get it over the knuckle 
of the finger of the other hand." 

I wrote back, " You see the effect, not the cause." 
I venture no explanation of this phenomena. I have 
had four other similar communication always with this 
same friend. Each time the manifestations are more 
distinct. Both of us possess strong magnetism. A sen- 
sitive, developed, cannot readily enter my circle without 
an electric shock. In experimenting, subjects say the 
impression is of a volt entering the subjective mind and 
passing to the objective knowledge along the sympathetic 
nerve system and produces a tingling sensation over the 
entire body. I make the experiment simply by a tele- 
pathic suggestion, and I find by development I have 
only to give the suggestion and apparently forget it. 



■ 56 

In copying this manuscript for the publisher I use 
heavy paper. My other chapters were easily copied, 
but in writing of the spirit forces, I have brought their 
conditions around me, and the magnetic current is so 
strong that I have much trouble separating the sheets as 
I write. 

There are laws within laws and we may none of us 
seek to fully unfold the mysteries. The struggle is not 
yet over but the vibrations are widening each day, and 
the time will come when we will truly say, "It is well 
with my soul." 



IV. 

BUILDING-STONES. 

I have gathered a posy of other men's flowers and 
nothing but the string that binds them is my own. — 

Montaigne. 

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is 
our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness be- 
gins at once to refine a man's features; any meanness or 
sensuality to imbrute them. — Thoreau. 

Divine wisdom in man does not speculate or "draw 
logical conclusions/' neither is it dependent for knowl- 
edge on communications received from anybody, but it 
is the power of the true, living faith; i. e., the power of 
the spirit of man to grasp spiritual truths existing within 
its own self. — Franz Hartmann, 31. D. 

The activity of the universal mind can only come to 
the consciousness of those whose spheres of mind are 
capable of receiving its impressions. Those who make 
room for such impressions will receive them. Such 
impressions are passing in and out of the sphere of the 
individual mind, and they may cause visions and dreams 
having an important meaning and whose interpretation 
is an art that is known to the wise. — Paracelsus, 



Serene, I fold my hands and wait, 

Nor care for wind or tide or sea; 
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate 

For lo ! my own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays, 

For what avails this eager pace ? 
I stand amid the eternal ways, 

And what is mine shall know my face — 

John Burroughs. 

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be 
the character of thy mind ; for the soul is dyed by the 
thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 

All reform aims in some one particular to let the 
great soul have its way through us ; in other words, to 
engage us to obey. There is no bar or wall in the soul 
where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. 
The walls are taken away. The soul circumscribeth all 
things. — Emerson. 

As in the Christ, so constantly in us the lower life 
has to meet all dangers and all agonies — the hunger, the 
thirst, the weariness, aye, even the scourging and the 
cross — when the purposes of the higher call for it. — 
Phillips Brooks. 

High hearts are never long without hearing some new 
call, some distant clarion of God, even in their dreams, 
and soon they are observed to break up the camp of 
ease and start on some fresh march of faithful service. 
And looking higher still, we find those who never wait 
until their moral work accumulates, and who reward 



59 

resolution with no rest; with whom , therefore, the alter- 
nation is instantaneous and constant ; who do the good 
only to see the better, and see the better only to achieve 
it; who are too meek for transport, too faithful for re- 
morse, too earnest for repose; whose worship is action, 
and whose action ceaseless aspiration. — J. Martineau. 

We are like to Him with whom there is no past or 
future, with whom a day is as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day, when we do our work in the 
great present, leaving both past and future to Him to 
whom they are ever present, and fearing nothing, be- 
cause He is in our past, as much as, and far more than, 
we can feel Him to be in our present. Partakers thus 
of the divine nature, resting in that perfect all-in-all, 
in whom our nature is eternal too, we walk without 
fear, full of hope and courage, and strength to do His 
will, waiting for the endless good which He is always 
giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in. — G. 
MacDonald. . 

Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any 
influence which may bring upon you any noble feeling. — 
J. Rushin. 

Our souls crave a perfect good ; we feel the pull thither- 
ward, we own the law that points in that direction. — Anon. 

The voice of the soul is not to be silenced. — Anon. 

The thinking being thinks its own conditions into the 
world outside of it. — Anon. 



60 

Looking down hinders, even though the intent is to 
escape evil. — Anon. 

People grow like what they look at; that is eminently 
true of those who look at the highest. — Anon. 

Build new domes of thought in your mind and pres- 
ently you will find that instead of your finding the 
eternal life, the eternal life will find you. — Anon. 

Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart 
is restless until it rests in Thee. — St. Augustine. 

If thou wouldst have aught of good, have it from 
t hy sel f . — Epidetus. 

Without hurry and without rest, the human soul 
goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty, 
every thought, every emotion which belongs to it, in 
appropriate events. — Emerson. 

There is a time in every man's education, when he 
arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that 
imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, 
for worse, as his portion ; that though the wide universe 
is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to 
him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground 
which is given him to till. — Emerson. 

Trust thyself. Accept the place the divine provi- 
dence has found for you, the society of your contempo- 
raries, the connection of events. — Ibid. 

No law can be sacred to me but that of my own na- 
ture. — Ibid. 

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the 



61 

people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and 
in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction 
between greatness and meanness. It is the harder be- 
cause you will always find those who think they know 
what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy 
in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy 
in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is 
he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect 
sweetness the independence of solitude. — Ibid. 

The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a 
weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through 
my act. — Ibid. 

Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Dis- 
content is the want of self reliance, it is infirmity of 
will. Regret calamities if you can thereby help the suf- 
ferer; if not, attend your own work and already the 
evil begins to be repaired. — Ibid. 

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift 
you can present every moment with the cumulative 
force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted 
talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half 
possession. That which each can do best, none but his 
Maker can teach him. — Ibid. 

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing 
can bring you peace but the triumphs of principles. — Ibid. 

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults. — 
Ibid. 

There is a deeper fact in the soul than compensation, 



62 

to wit, its own nature. The soul is not a compensation, 
but a life. The soul is. Under all this running sea of 
circumstances, whose waters ebb and flow with perfect 
balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real being. Essence, 
or God, is not a relation or a part, but the whole. — Ibid. 

What your heart thinks great, is great. The souPs 
emphasis is always right. Take the place and attitude 
which belong to you, and all men acquiesce. — Ibid. 

The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from 
a ring, imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards 
to new and larger circles, and that without end. The 
extent to which this generation of circles, wheel without 
wheel, will go, depends on the force or truth of the 
individual soul. — Ibid. 

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. 
The way of life is wonderful; it is by abandonment — lb. 

Life is a lesson. Count all joy, all pain no more than 
part of what the soul must learn in this great school, the 
world. — Grace Macomber. 

Blindfolded and alone I stand 

With unknown threshholds on each hand: 

The darkness deepens as I grope, 

Afraid to fear, afraid to hope. 

Yet this one thing I learn to know 

Each day more surely as I go, 

That doors are opened, ways are made, 

Burdens are lifted, or are laid 

By some great law unseen and still 

Unfathomed purpose to fulfil. 

" Not as I will."— H. H. Jackson. 



63 

If you'll sing a song as you go along, 

In the face of the real or the fancied wrong; 

In spite of the doubt, if you'll fight it out, 

And show a heart that is brave and stout; 

If you'll laugh at the jeers and refuse the tears, 

You'll force the ever-reluctant cheers 

That the world denies when a coward cries 

To give to the man who bravely tries; 

And you'll win success with a little song 

If you'll sing the song as you go along. — Anon. 

Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought 

To chord with God's great plan. That done, ah, know 

Thy silent wishes to results shall grow, 

And day by day shall miracles be wrought. 

Once let thy being selflessly be brought 

To chime with universal good, and lo ! 

What music from the spheres shall through thee flow ! 

What benefits shall come to thee unsought ! 

Shut out the noise of traffic ! Rise above 

The body's clamor ! With the soul's fine ear 

Attune thyself to harmonies divine. 

All, all are written in the key of Love. 

Leap to the score, and thou hast nought to fear. 

Achievements yet undreamed of shall be thine. — 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 



64 



MORTAL MIND, 

"Yet all experience is an arch where through 
Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades 
Forever and forever as I move. 
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use; 
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life 
Were all too little, and of one to me 
Little remains; but every hour is saved 
From that eternal silence. Something more — 
A bringer of new things; and vile it were 
For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 
And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
To follow knowledge like a sinking star 
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought." 

This manuscript was folded, ready for the publisher, 
when a voice said to me, " wait;" and I had to wait. 
Circumstances compelled me. No matter which way I 
turned, I was nonplused. Finally, a great wave of ex- 
perience swept over my psychic brain showing why I 
was stopped, and I dared not go on without giving the 
intuitions and guidings to the public, since all are seeking 
beyond the bounds of human thought to follow knowl- 
edge — and yet the untraveled world extends like its 
sinking star. Poets live in the psychic realm. They 
touch the emotions of life and give voice to the silent 



65 

thoughts of every nature. Perhaps I quote too freely, 
but the language expresses the vibrations I want to send 
forth, and it may be only one snowy feather of truth 
falls, but it is worth the trouble of trying even to send 
forth that atom. 

Whoever thinks to lay down a working hypothesis that 
all may follow, and follow as a given rule good for any 
length of time, is mistaken. Nature changes constantly. 
Progression never stands still, and a psychic nature 
must move through all experiences and not rust unbur- 
nished. You cannot possibly tell yourself you have 
found a truth and expect to hold it. You will outgrow 
it and rise to other heights. No, I admit this is no 
blissful state, nor a restful one; but it is true living. 
From the cradle to the grave is one complete and in- 
creasing progression. What we think this week we 
may not think next week, nor to-morrow. Certainly 
not, if we be thinking people. Everything changes — 
customs, people, governments, religion. As w r ell ex- 
pect to put a bar across the earth's orbit as expect to 
concentrate your mind on one set rule. 

The planets and their satellites are in constant motion, 
and it has been proved that the sun itself is not fixed, 
but all obey one grand law. And yet man lays down a 
rule and says, " Here, follow this, or be outside regula- 
tion thought." 

The world is running mad after its desire for intan- 
gible substances, and it will not be satisfied; neither will 



66 

it be satisfied after it passes the chasm death makes 
until it rests in its own knowledge of progression. 

With all their seances, all their tests, all their mater- 
ializations, spirit controls give us no idea of the life be- 
yond. 

They tell us they are happy and at rest. But do they 
give any idea of heaven as taught by the churches ? Of 
the personal God they have worshipped, or of Jesus, 
their mediator ? Has anyone ever returned and said he 
was like Dives? God forbid ! 

Loving messages we get, guidance along our earthly 
path — questions answered, but it is all so unsatisfactory, 
and we spend our time chasing shadows, and are no 
nearer the truth. 

Psychic phenomena are varied and interesting, but 
they are lurid, gleaming darts that carry us over rugged 
paths. That there is something within the reach of all, 
the world feels, but what that something is, the filmy 
veil of material thought shuts away from mortal vision. 
Every individual considers it a compliment to be told 
he or she is magnetic or may be a medium. What does 
it mean? Everyone does possess magnetism to some 
extent or he would not be here. Everyone is a medium 
by his attracting force, only some use it differently from 
others. 

The hypothesis of the duality of mind is seemingly 
correct, but there comes a time when questions arise. 
After death seizes the body what becomes of the objec- 



67 

tive mind ? Does it become submerged into the subjec- 
tive, although they are distinct and separate entities? 

Who has passed through the dissecting room and 
held within his hands the brain of a human being ? 
Truly wonderful it is with all its complications sending 
out its nerves and nerve force, and its still more wonder- 
ful convolutions. Yet who of us dare say this mass of 
gray and white matter thought and acted of its own vo- 
lition ? If so, why so useless after death ? What caused 
the convolutions? I clipped the following from a daily 
paper : 

(t Dr. Hanseman, of the Berlin University, has made 
an examination of the brain of the late Prof. Helmholtz. 
The average weight of a man's brain is 1358 grammes. 
Gauss' brain weighed 1492, Cuvier's, 1600, and Helm- 
holtz's only 1440, but in its frontal part it presented a 
very unusual development and number of convolutions, 
and it is these convolutions, not brain weight, that 
modern physiology associates with intelligence." 

Now, what is intelligence? We rightly say animals 
have intelligence and yet we call it instinct? 

In human beings, reason holds sway, and instinct is 
classed as intuition, or over- wrought imagination. 

A vain multiplicity of words that satisfy not, and 
still we go on seeking for light. 

What does it matter about the future if we know 
how to live in the present? And to live is not only to 



68 

breathe, but to extract all the sunshine, all the joy, all 
the health, that is meant to be our inheritance. 

I sat by my window the other night through many 
hours watching engineers at work on an electric road, 
and thought how little they knew of the force they were 
then controlling. 

Nor do we know the force we think we control. 
Mortal mind ! 

Some one has boldly said there is no objective mind, 
it is all subjective. We know mind is a force; what 
else need we know? Mind is not the brain, but it is 
the power that controls the nerve force, that produces 
the convolutions that endow us with life, that lives 
after the body is dead. If there be two minds, what 
becomes of the other? One law pervades all nature. 

All the rivers and streams in some way reach the 
ocean. All the oceans are connected, forming one vast 
body of water with its numerous and intricate network 
of outlets. 

One mind, one force, one law, guides and controls the 
universe. All human beings are evolved manifestations 
of materiality pervaded and controlled by the one mind 
according to our hereditary ideas of suggestion. 

We are individualities reflecting the one Divine mind, 
and we do not know ourselves. Do not know our birth- 
right, our privileges — but live as slaves to our surround- 
ings and are too phlegmatic, too indolent, to seek out 
our own salvation and carve our own channels. 



69 

Individuals we are not, but units of a mass, while 
content to plod along the line of least resistance. 

One evening last week I saw by the paper there 
would be a double hanging the next day. I thought 
no more of it. At least, I didn't think I remembered, 
forgetting, if such be possible for long, my subjective 
mind. 

The next day was cloudy and heavy. A great op- 
pression rested on me. I could not rid myself of it. 
It was not mine, but what was it? All day it grew in 
intensity. Something seemed trying to impress itself 
on my conscious thought. Some truth seemed hovering. 
I was curiously lead even to an undertaker's shop to 
telephone to a neighboring city on business, and the 
paraphernalia of death made my nerves keenly sensitive. 

But still I could not unravel the mystery. Later in 
the afternoon, I went, strangely enough, to another por- 
tion of the house to talk with a patient. Her first 
words were, " I shall be so glad when this day is over 
and this hanging is a thing of the past." 

The mystery was revealed. Every one I met that 
day bore the same testimony — psychics and materialists 
— the dead oppression of the mental atmosphere. 

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole." The 
sudden ending of those lives caused a reaction — a jar of 
the entire universe — and those nearest felt the strong 
first vibrations! An injury to one effects the whole. 



70 

Where was, and what is Mortal Mind? 

We do not comprehend its powers any more than we 
can explain electricity. 

A phenomena has lately come to my experience that 
I feel justified in giving to investigating minds. Led by 
cariosity and some invisible force I visited a slate-writ- 
ing medium — a man altogether different from the usual 
class of mediums. 

I asked if he believed in his science? 

He honestly replied, "I certainly do, but I cannot 
explain it or even understand it." 

Now, the results would have been the same had I car- 
ried my own slates. 

We sat on either side of an ordinary table over which 
was thrown a chenille cover. I wrote three questions 
to different persons in the spirit world and folded each 
paper separately. The medium did not see the ques- 
tions. 

I washed off those ordinary school slates with a wet 
sponge, dried them with a cotton cloth, tied two slates 
together with my own handkerchief, and held them 
several inches above the table. The medium also had 
his hands on the outer edge. He had broken off a fine 
point of a slate pencil and placed between the slates. 

The spirits did not immediately respond. He insisted 
I write one more question to balance the sexes. So I 
added to the list a very material friend who had passed 
away about two years ago. 



71 

I will give my questions in detail and the replies. 
The slates I brought away with me and have in my pos- 
session. 

1. C. P. McCabe: How far wrong am I in my occult 
work? Is there anything you wish to communicate to 
me? 

2. Margaret A. McCabe : Are you happier than on 
this sphere? Are you at rest? 

3. Fannie Robins : How will my affair end? 

4. (By the medium's request) John Robins : Shall I 
go to Norfolk on Sunday? 

Suddenly there came a scratching sound between the 
slates as of a pencil writing. Now mark the reverse 
order of communication and the signatures. 

1. Little by little I am learning what real life is. 
I do not feel that I ever lived until I got into this sphere. 
The spirit is the real being, not the body, and in or out 
of the form it lives on and is the same. I never ex- 
pected to see you here. Yes, go to Norfolk on Sunday 
if things be shaped for it properlv there. 

J. L. ROBINS. 

(This penmanship is identical with the writer's style 
and the signature he always used. I did not go to Nor- 
folk, however, and don't see that I lost anything.) 



72 

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•jaiddeq [nos A\u Supr^m puB 9J9q Saicaoo joj noA' ^creq} 
j "siq^ sb jnjJspaoAV os uorre[9A9.i 12 jo aon'Bjcfooo'e 
9qi o; 9SJ9AB os 's9uq snoiSipj Suop? dn araoo s^q 9uo 
uaqAV sSuiqq. 9S9qj jo ifyu9A 9qj 9zi[B9J o; si ;i ^pioujip 
Aioq [[9A\ jpij pgapui Moa^ j *9saq} sb s§ai}99cu qans 
in 9A0[ 9AV gsoq; jo sjjnqgj 9qj j^9q 0} pj^q os si ;j 
•noX A*q p9taoo[9A\ pui3 p9Ai909j 9q UE9 9no :reqi puq; puB 
9J9q 9tuooo^ si %i Suicaa^qo a\ojj •Suiujoui poor) -g 

My Dear Child: Receive this little letter as a 
token of my love and regard. I am not gone from you. 
I still live and see and know all. Think of me as I 
am, alive and well and comparatively happy. I am 
happy and at rest. 

Devotedly, Mother, 

MARGARET A. McCABE. 

(These two on one slate and arranged in this unique 
way. Signatures perfect, but penmanship strange and 
both written in a different hand.) 

3. This is indeed a suprise and a pleasure to meet you 
here. How did you know I could be here and meet 
you in such a strange way? Well, think no more of 
me as one dead and gone. I am just as much myself as 
I ever was. Your line of work and thought is correct. 
Some experiences need modifying. I am at rest. 
Father, 

CHAS. P. McCABE. 
Your mother is with me. 



73 

(This handwriting is not familiar but that may be ex- 
plained by natural methods because in life he employed 
a secretary. The question arises — if the mother and 
father were together why did they not write on one 
slate?) 

This phenomena is particularly interesting from its 
relation to mortal mind. If spirit hands penned those 
lines, they materialized sufficiently to employ ordinary 
means, but why after this writing, was the infinitesimal 
point of pencil not consumed? It was just the same 
size after filling three slates as when placed there, and 
this we know would be an impossibility if used. 

These communications upset all other theories of the 
months previous. 

These are not satisfying. Were the subjective per- 
sonal communications, as related in my essay on Spirit 
Forces correct, why did these same spirits in writing me 
take this meeting as a surprise? And in coming so 
close to earth why did they confine themselves to simply 
answering little questions when weightier ones existed ? 
And why was the father the last one to respond when, 
according to all spiritualistic lore, he should have been 
nearest, since it was the anniversary of his death and 
our combined thought brought him nearer the earth ? 
There was so much sameness about the communications, 
so stereotyped, and the answers to my questions were 
most politic, throwing the results on my own forces. 



74 

So the query goes on and mortal mind performs its 
tricks and makes dupes of us beyond our keu. 

On the night of the anniversary of father's death I 
retired to bed and to sleep. I was suddenly aroused 
from the heavy sleep to the sub-conscious state by a 
heavy knock against my shoulder. I said, " Who is 
it? Is it you, father?" and tried to turn over to see, 
conscious of some presence back of me but I could not 
turn. I was held down by strong pressure. The 
struggle to arouse myself and shake off the oppression 
resulted in over excited nerves and I gained conscious- 
ness with an effort, In common parlance this may be 
described as an ordinary " nightmare," only I must con- 
fess I am not subject to these hallucinations, this being 
my first experience, nor had I eaten anything previous 
to retiring since oiy usual dinner hour, six hours before, 
and my digestive organs are perfect. But that night 
was remarkable, for every article of furniture in my 
room kept up its incessant raps. Something unusual ; 
besides the room was filled with magnetism. Deter- 
mined to investigate, the next night I made prepara- 
tions to receive any spiritual visitors that might come. 
Removed all portable furniture into another room, espe- 
cially willow rockers that would naturally rap, accord- 
ing to philosophical vibrations, even if the electric 
vibrations of thought did not reach them, gave myself 
strong treatment against nerves, laid down and went to 
sleep, and slept soundly until morning. Now, how can 



75 

I account for the previous night? Easily enough. 
Mortal mind acting on nerves. In the room directly 
under mine lives a couple who devoutly believe in 
spiritualism. They are not professionals and are 
limited in their investigations. The woman is con- 
stantly experiencing raps and thumps and, having 
lately conversed with her, my mortal mind must go to 
work and produce all this phantasmagoria for my de- 
lectation. Now the vibrations of my restlessness were 
felt by my materialistic (?) friend at a distance of several 
hundred miles. This morning I received a letter saying, 
"What was wrong with you Saturday night? I was 
with you in thought but could get only an uneasy im- 
pression, besides I could not sleep and in the morning I 
said, i Now, what was she up to last night?'" Mortal 
mind again, for never once did my thoughts wander to 
that distant friend consciously. 

It may have been spiritualistic rappings, but I want 
nothing so material. I claim the majesty and dignity 
and Godliness of the subjective mind, and if in the spirit 
world the souls of my departed loved ones wish to guide 
me they can and will use natural means and not use 
contracting fibers of wood to let me know they are near. 

If the concentrated belief of spiritualists have estab- 
lished this code of signals satisfactory to themselves it is 
not for me to deny their experiments and pleasant be- 
lief, but if ray psychic brain, being en rapport with 
their mental atmosphere, produces similar results, why 



the next night was my belief and power of auto-sug- 
gestion so strong as to make me perfectly oblivious of 
any demonstrations even were spirits near me ? Still I 
am not wedded to my ways and am open to conviction, 
only I cannot take table raps and furniture blows to 
mean spirit messages when I have a mind in connection 
with the Universal Mind. 

So many people gain words and think they have the 
science. I have had so many questions put to me on 
the power of auto-suggestion that I feel called to ex- 
plain here what I mean. 

Kepetition of words, denying impressions, exercising 
the will, are not tokens of auto-suggestion. To do this 
one must be able to concentrate thought and pass into 
the sub-conscious state, which is easily recognized once 
you have gained the knowledge and then give yourself 
the suggestion. 

This is followed by a feeling of exhilaration, lightness, 
buoyancy, freedom of the body and magnetism or elec- 
tricity. 

This is an adjunct of every individual, but it is not 
every one who takes the trouble to develop because it 
requires patience, perseverance, courage, and fearlessness. 

Ordinarily it can't be done ; for there are necessary 
conditions to be observed and a control of the entire 
nervous system. It is not developed momentarily, 
though many achieve greater results than others who 
labor longer and more untiringly, but the power once 



obtained is the keynote of health and universal good 
and after development it may be practised almost un- 
consciously — by a mere wish or desire — while the con- 
scious brain is performing regular duties or conversing 
along other lines. 

There are pre-natal impressions that strengthen this 
development, or oppose it. There are special gifts and 
there are evils blacker than night that follow in its 
wake if the control be not pure. 

Of stage work and hypnotic passes, to please and 
amuse curious people, I know nothing and will not 
exercise them. Their day is over and the harm they 
have thrown around this God- like science is degrading. 

I hypnotize by telepathy, and the magnetic current 
thus emanating soothes the nerves and brings refresh- 
ing sleep. To use such gifts for any but healing pur- 
poses is devilish. 

Suggestion is a power passing the knowledge of man 
and suggestion is mind in its magnetic currents operat- 
ing on kindred minds less developed or equally so and 
expectant. 

I think the entire trouble lies in our selfishness, which 
is due to our material conception of life. We want our 
own sphere to be one of happiness and contentment, 
peace and luxury, and do not give of our sympathy and 
love to all individuals. 

We lack tenderness and affection except where it 
pleases us to bestow it. 



78 

If I could call back six months of my life, when I 
did not know how to show tenderness, did not know 
how to use my powers and give what yearning human 
hearts wanted, I would gladly live over those months, 
and they cover the only period of my life that I would 
voluntarily go through again. I was so blindly living, 
only for the best life, suited to fill my idea of enjoy- 
ment. Now that the difference has come and I realize 
I am only a reflection of all life, I want to link myself 
with individual miserable existence and bless as I pass. 
My heart seems bleeding when I watch the misery 
around me. 

One of the saddest sights met my view to-day. A 
good, honest, little colored woman, seized with the 
craving for drink, left her work and went out on the 
street. A few hours after I saw her lying on the floor, 
completely under the influence of liquor, with a bunch 
of dead roses beside her that she had picked up. She 
was one of God's creatures and a part of the universe. 

And this deadly curse can be entirely removed by the 
power of suggestion. 

Church people and scoffers are lifting their hands in 
holy horror at what they call the blasphemy of mental 
scientists and yet they say they believe their Bible, when 
all its teachings show the one Universal Mind, as God, 
and spirit. 

Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." How? 



?9 

And again, "Unto the least of these as unto Me." 
What do they mean by their spiritual teachings? 

There is no mystery, but there is love, and healing, 
and happiness, and health. 

Mortal mind is an adjunct of the body until the 
tissues of the body run their day; then mortal mind be- 
comes its spiritual self. It returns to its origin, and 
being a portion of the Universal Whole, it can produce 
all the phenomena of its own imagination, and by its 
own desires and credulity can make us slaves to mate- 
rial life, or give us freedom in the joy of illumination. 

Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on. 
The night is dark and I am far from home, 

Lead thou me on. 
Keep thou my feet, I do do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step's enough for me. 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou 

Shoulds't lead me on. 
I loved to choose and see my path; but now 

Lead thou me on. 
I loved the garish day; and spite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years. 

So long Thy power hast blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on. 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent till 

The night is gone. 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile. 



80 



VL 
ALPHA AND OMEGA, 

The beginning and the end. One divine complete- 
ness. Eternity ! Starting from any point of the cir- 
cumference, with unvarying result, we arrive always 
just where we begun, but we had the joy of progression 
and of knowing the circle, which we never should have 
done had we not set out on the race, and the one great 
truth would have been unknown to us. There never 
was any beginning, there never will be any ending. 

There is only God. There never was and there never 
will be anything else. I am God. You are God. We 
came from Him, and when this mortal body has run its 
day we return to God. Nothing is lost. Everything 
is just as it was when the Word spoke, and creation 
began. God never retracts, never takes back, and what 
was spoken remains, intangible, invisible, useless prob- 
ably, but not by God's intention, only because of man's 
perverted, ignorant eyes. When passion is cooled and 
the purblind race to the grave is ended, physical eyes 
will be opened to the vast unfathonable truth that sur- 
rounds us, just within the grasp of every living being, 
but separated by greater walls than ever China raised 
around her kingdom; walls of structure so enduringj 



81 

towering up beyond and hiding the sunlight of God's 
love, shutting out the secret of true living, making each 
individual life of such limited proportion that bounded 
by his own small circle he cannot feel the soul-commun- 
ing of the life around him, and this wall is simply ignor- 
ance and narrow reasoning belief. 

Better the "crackling of thorns beneath the pot" 
than the pessimistic Pharisaical wall of intellect which 
refuses to see and be true to its own convictions. 

The physical senses are only sentinels of mortal mind. 
We do not carry them with us beyond the grave. The 
soul needs no avenue for its functions. 

God is everywhere. 

" From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, 
Tenth, or ten-thousandth, breaks the chain alike." 

You cannot strike any link from Alpha to Omega 
because you can't find a link. It is just one perfect 
harmonious whole. The mistakes and troubles that 
arise are products of mortal mind. God never meant 
any such complications, but man, wise in his own con- 
ceit, has built up his own wall and shut God out ; and 
man is rudderless and yet does not comprehend where 
the trouble lies. Let but one assault be made on that 
wall, the slightest channel be cut, and the soul allowed 
to spring into consciousness, and I defy any craft to ever 
try and entirely obliterate that still, small voice from 
whispering to its own and gathering in force until by 



82 

mighty friction the victory is won, and that man stands 
forth as a representative god, uniting and blending the 
perfect attributes of materia], intellectual, and spiritual 
attainments. 

Of all characters that ever swept across this world's 
stage, none have exceeded in brilliancy and daring the 
hero of Austerlitz. Born of obscure parentage, he united 
ambition and will, and by the greatest strokes of diplo- 
macy wielded a power under which Europe trembled. 
His early youth is described as taciturn, wilful, stud- 
ious, and a dreamer. By development he rose to the 
height of his prominence; by invincible courage and 
steady determination he yielded not to any whisperings 
of defeat, but backed by his arrogance and vanity, 
though crushed to the earth by the enemy, he rushed 
forward to his final overthrow ; and, sadder than the 
sufferings of Josephine, deeper than the agony of the 
brave army on its retreat from Moscow, the field of 
Waterloo gave forth the cry of the conqueror, crushed 
to rise no more. Self-love defeated ! The dreamer lost 
in his own vain imaginings because the connecting link 
of the wildest, strangest, strongest mentality was cast 
aside by mortal pride ! 

Hugo prefaces his description of the great charge by 
these pathetic words : lt Had it not rained on the 17th 
of June, 1815, the future of Europe would have been 
changed. A few drops of water, more or less, prostrated 
Napoleon. That Waterloo should be the end of Aus- 



S3 

terlitz, Providence needed only a little rain ; and an 
unseasonable cloud crossing the sky sufficed for the 
overthrow of a world." 

Just a cloud sweeping across the horizon may make or 
mar history ! Is this coincidence or intention ? Happy 
the man who understands the laws of life and can utilize 
that cloud for the upbuilding of his own forces. The 
defeat of one is the victory of another, but the happy 
medium of equalizing magnetism produces a calm that 
floods all eternity with sunshine. Nature is soothing 
and speaks always with a voice like music to a soul sick 
with selfishness. 

Tired and weary with the cares of a life that seemed 
aimless, weary of the heart-yearnings and passionate 
longing for a life beyond the commonplace existence of 
mere living, a mortal traveling through the hill countries 
of a northern State had a message from nature, inter- 
preted by this same still, small voice. All around was 
ice and snow ; cold, barren hillsides, and valleys slum- 
bering at their feet, until awakened by their Sun-God ; 
bleakness and desolateness, but on the hilltops the re- 
flection of the sunshine. 

In this mortal heart were colder, more icy blasts. 
Every desire, every ambition, every wish seemed frozen 
and covered by a pall deeper than the snowdrifts and 
perhaps not so pure, and if the sunlight of God's love 
had broken its way through the walls of self-structure 
it was unfelt. 



84 

Down from the mountain top a little stream had made 
its path, winding in and out among the rocks and gather- 
ing force as it swept over the boulders, until as it crossed 
the road it had formed one broad track — but silent now — 
frozen into one solid beautiful example of patience and 
waiting. Under that mantle of ice life waited and lis- 
tened for the voice of its Sun-God to bid it sparkle and 
flow, singing on its course. The lesson sank deeply into 
that frozen, embittered, lonely heart, and the soul pul- 
sating beneath that icy barrier sprung into life and found 
its answer to the problem of living. 

Aye, friction is necessary. We find it in the human 
framework. We find it in all great constructions, but 
there is an antidote. There must be friction always, 
until the soul gains its kingdom, and the oil upon 
troubled waters has robbed life of its tempestuous waves. 

Years ago, in a woman's college, one of the students 
carelessly dropped a chemical she was holding. The 
liquid fell on the front of her dress directly over the 
heart. The upright beam fell three inches and the 
cross beam measured two inches. The woman was a 
psychist and fearless. For four years that cross was an 
omen. 

" Misfortunes came not in single spies but in battal- 
ions." 

Directly before any great affliction or sorrow that 
emblem came to the subjective mind as a vision, and 
everywhere did the word "cross" appear. It was the 



85 

Irish Banshee ! I am not commenting on the law of 
" suggestion " now, but simply stating the subtle work- 
ing of a curiously wrought psychic brain. 

On Palm Sunday she was surrounded by crosses 
made of reeds, every scholar wore one, and many were 
presented to her. Before the week ended afflictions 
multiplied, in less than a month one parent passed sud- 
denly into eternity and within six months the other fol- 
lowed, and every earthly tie of the old life was swept 
away. Everywhere she looked the emblem of the Cruci- 
fied One cast its shadow upon her. Mortal self was 
warring heavily with the ego of her inner consciousness. 
Friction most unaccountable pressed heavily, but the soul 
grew on. One night she saw a vision of a little way- 
side chapel, and through dreamland she sought an an- 
swer to the absence of the accustomed v cross upon its 
tower — but no answer came, and the cross was conspicu- 
ous by its absence. She had learned to await develop- 
ment of allegories, which are only pictures intuition 
paints upon the soul's canvas. Next morning, driving 
down the city by a church she had passed before without 
consciously observing, there suddenly stood out in its 
golden splendor against a cloudy sky — the cross : and 
the dream was answered. 

What had come as Alpha in a vision was lost in the 
Omega of another vision. 

The cross was only mortal suffering, trials, and afflic- 
tions deeper than words can portray — but when the 



86 

Christ came into its own, bright and shining was the 
cross against its dark background of woe and clouds. 

Think you I am dreaming dreams, and seeing visions ? 
Nay, I speak truth. 

The world is slowly awakening to a great joy, un- 
speakable and full of glory, a joy that has always been 
— but not understood. Invisible cords connect all life, 
for there is but one life. Vibrations reach out from the 
center to the periphery. Nothing is lost, though many 
are too blind to see. Time and space do not exist, only 
to mortal mind, and the life that pulsates and vibrates 
within me links and joins me with all life, no matter 
what material space intervenes. The great subjective 
mind of all eternity separates nothing from itself. 

Telepathy is an interesting experiment to curious 
seekers after phenomena, but to those who know its 
laws it is simpler than telegraphy. Nearly all are 
trying to find its secrets, but it has none. 

There is one Universal Intelligence and from its 
source all life draws its power. 

By concentration and desire states of consciousness 
become one. The question is, not whether these states 
communicate with each other, but whether mortal mind 
has the power to draw this result above the threshold 
of consciousness. Some have gained this power by 
persistent and patient effort, and possibly by friction. 
Patience and perseverance work out all results. The 
silence of Vibrating Intelligence makes plain all mortal 



crosses, makes them shine forth with splendor greater 
than the noonday sun j robs life of its ills, its heart- 
aches, and its misunderstandings. 

Learn the only secret nature holds — the secret of 
patience — eternal repose ! — and all things are yours. 

" Clouds, that in their very motion breathe of rest/' 
the " murmur and glistening" of life ; the "instinct 
reaching and growing into the soul of a flower" — 
breathe nothing but repose. 

Silence — the silence of God — the Holy of Holies — 
where mortal mind comes into harmony with the 
Divine Mind, and the ego asserts itself! 

Learn this secret power, and learn then the controll- 
ing force of soul communing. Learn the Alpha and 
Omega of life. Learn to recognize God and yourself. 

As He was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall 
be; as He was before the Past began, as He will be 
when the Future is ended. 




JUL' 1 1899 



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